by Larry Smith, MD, CPT & Emilie "Flo" Hester, CPT
Introduction:
Lesser known weight loss fact? You need to make it a priority to get 6 - 9 hours of sleep each night.
"Come on! How can I get more sleep? I'm already up at 6:00 AM to get the kids ready for school and the significant other ready for work. I feed the family and the animals then every one heads out the door and its only 7:30 AM. I work all morning with an hour for lunch then finish work at 5:00 PM. On my way home I collect the kids from after school or practice and now its 6:00 PM. Then there is feeding the animals, dinner, helping with homework, laundry, cleaning, finishing dinner followed by cleaning the kitchen. Oh, least I forget, I pour myself a cold glass of wine or a cocktail and progress on through the evening. Suddenly, its after 9:00 PM and I'm tired. Its bed-time. I crawl into bed but cannot fall asleep. So, I turn the TV on. I watch some mindless sitcom while snacking on some high calorie junk food and drink. I fall asleep with the TV on only to be periodically woken up by it to gaze at some mindless infomercial as I drift back to sleep. The alarm clock goes off at 5:30 AM and it all starts over."
Sound familiar? Yeah, been there - done that, LOL.
So what can you do? First and foremost Focus on you your body for just a bit. You are only given one so its a good idea to take care of it. Now, what follows is gunna sound a little hokey, but its true. When you listen to your body it will let you know what you need to do. If you think about it a moment you know its true. Your body tells you when you are hungry, when you are full, when you feel bad. when you need something but you are not sure what it is. If you listen, It tells you when you are tired and sleepy. If you listen it tells you more. You will begin to realize that there are other important things to consider on this journey through life. One of those important things is living long enough and well enough to enjoy it.
So, here are a few things we are going to focus on in the next several posts about understanding the only body we have and how to get it to be the healthiest it and you can be. This series of Blogs will be about sleep, its phases and sleeps role in our lives and health.
When you get enough sleep you will:
Crave less junk
Consume less overall
Lower your cortisol levels
Improve your mood
Lower your stress levels
Feel better
Have more energy
Things you also need to do:
Make time for your workouts.
Make time to eat healthy meals.
Make time to rest and recover.
Get more effective and longer sleep.
You will never regret a single one of those choices and you’ll see SERIOUS CHANGE if you do!
In Part 2 we will begin the discuss of what sleep actually is and how to best utilize it. We will discuss how it helps regulate our bodies and its importance.